NEED TO CATCH up? The Journal brings you a round-up of today’s news.

IRELAND

Roy Keane meets puppies in training at Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind. The charity is seeking volunteers to help support pups in their early training stages - no experience is necessary and you can check out guidedogs.ie for more. John Allen John Allen

• Three men were convicted of the rape and sexual assault of a woman they met in a Dublin nightclub in 2019.
• A suggestion by the CEO of ESB Networks that the repair costs from Storm Éowyn could result in higher electricity bills for customers next year was described as a “sick joke” to the thousands that remain without power, according to a Social Democrats TD.
• Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar could be a witness for an injunction on super junior ministers attending Cabinet according to TD Paul Murphy.
• One of Ireland’s biggest tobacco companies instructed lawyers to raise concerns over a public consultation on stricter regulation of vapes.
• A father made an emotional plea in court as his son was accused of punching a priest in Maynooth University.
• A fisherman died after suffering injuries on board a trawler off the coast of Cork.
• Leaders’ Questions (finally) got underway, with Taoiseach Micheál Martin admitting that the government got its housing projections badly wrong.
• The Omagh Bombing Inquiry heard tributes to two talented teenagers and a “gentle giant” who were killed in the blast.
• A protester who admitted “intimidating” TD Michael Healy-Rae, has avoided jail and a criminal record after a judge held he had satisfactorily completed a restorative justice programme.
• The NFL is set to grace Croke Park with talks on an appearance by the Pittsburgh Steelers at an advanced stage.

INTERNATIONAL 

A man sells bread under the wreckage of his bakery destroyed by an Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip. Abdel Kareem Hana / AP Abdel Kareem Hana / AP / AP

#OREBRO SHOOTING: Swedish police indicated that a gunman who slaughtered 10 people at an adult education centre shot himself, as the country mourns its worst mass killing.

#GAZA: Donald Trump’s claims that he intends to “take over” the Gaza Strip in Palestine prompted widespread horror and pushback internationally, with TDs here making fresh calls for the Taoiseach to boycott the St Patrick’s Day White House visit.

#UK: Kay Burley announced she was leaving Sky News after 36 years at the broadcaster.

PARTING SHOT

A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the Sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles.

It may sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1% chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years.

Dubbed 2024 YR4, the asteroid was first spotted on 27 December by an observatory in Chile. Based on its brightness, astronomers estimate it is between 40–90 meters wide.

Scientists are watching closely, for now.